Prokop Singer: Czech politicians celebrate the end of Nazism while giving cover to the ongoing genocide in Gaza
During the weekend the world commemorated 80 years from the end of the Second World War in Europe. High-ranking politicians including Czech President Petr Pavel attended the ceremony in Prague on the Vítkov Hill.
The President of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil, gave a speech during the ceremony in which he called on those present not to be silent about evil and not to appease it. If we agree that this anniversary should actually convey the universal message of the fight against oppression and wrongdoing, we cannot ignore the deep divisions in the Czech political discourse on Israel and Palestine.
For several months, the Czech political representation has openly supported Israel, whose army has killed tens of thousands of civilians over the last 18 months (according to estimates, more than 52,000, but the actual numbers could be even higher) while causing one of the most urgent humanitarian crises today. After Israel broke the cease-fire in March and renewed its attacks, it announced a total blockade on the population of Gaza and totally stopped supplies of groceries, potable water, and medicine.
Currently, the Government of Israel is threatening to concentrate the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip in the south of the enclave and plans to systematically destroy the entire territory. It is necessary to add that Gaza is already in ruins and most of its population have been repeatedly displaced.
We might pretend the Czech Government neither sees nor hears these crimes, but it is becoming more and more evident that it is de facto participating in them. The Czech Republic is supplying Israel with weapons and with diplomatic cover.
Although in the context of Jewish suffering the comparison of Israel to the Nazi regime might seem extreme and controversial, today’s ultra-right Government in Israel and the chauvinist atmosphere in Israeli society are unfortunately dangerously approximating such a parallel all on their own. An Israeli producer employed by Channel 14, a television station frequently labeled as the Israeli equivalent of America’s Fox News, posted the following on the X social media site [about the inhabitants of Gaza]: “Men, women, and children – by any means necessary a Shoah [holocaust] must be performed upon them. Yes, read that again – H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T! In my opinion, gas chambers, cattle car transports and other cruel ways of death for these Nazis.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently assured the Israeli public “not a speck of flour” will make it into Gaza. Humanitarian organizations have long been sounding the alarm and warning against the acute risk of famine.
From the beginning of the Israeli offensive, which originally started as a response to the brutal terrorist attack led by Hamas in October 2023, Czech society has also significantly radicalized. Dehumanization of the Palestinians has become the customary norm.
The speech of some Czech cabinet members on the Gaza question is often no different from the hateful outpourings of anonymous profiles on social media. Both the Czech Republic and Israel are insisting the inhabitants of Gaza bear full responsibility for having voted for Hamas to govern, including for the brutal consequences now impacting them.
Speaking on public broadcaster Czech Television, European Affairs Minister Martin Dvořák declared that hatred is part of the Palestinians’ “genetic makeup”. After a strong wave of criticism for that remark, which was obviously reminiscent of eugenic, Nazi rhetoric, the minister apologized, although not officially, just through his X profile.
The contrast between the dehumanizing declarations and the overall societal discussion in the Czech Republic on the one hand, and the reality in Gaza on the other, where Israel is killing civilians in the most shocking way on a daily basis, is glaring. It is all the more so at a time when we are commemorating the end of the Second World War in Europe and the pledge of “Never Again”, which is turning out to be a tragically empty phrase today.
In conclusion, returning to Vystrčil’s message that “evil must not be appeased” and that we should not be silent about it means that Czech politicians should start by stopping their active support for the evil that is now underway. Only then might their moral appeals sound like something more than an empty pose.
Prokop Singer is an Arabist and Islamologist who has long studied the subject of the Palestinian question and the critique of the western view of international politics.
